In the past month (25th June till the 6th July) 2 artists from Nani’s Kitengela Glass, Maina and Kibe, have visited Washington DC for
extended presentations and lectures at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (http://www.festival.si.edu/2014/Kenya). They build a
house on the spot and gave lectures on the famous Kitengela Glass recycling art and architectural style.

It turned out to be a great success; especially the intercultural exchange part of it was very informing for many of the visitors of the festival “ Sir, which
Kenyan tribe builds like this?” was an often heard question “It’s the Kitengela Glass tribe, sir”. Which off course was a joke, but this at the same time gave food for thought and discussion on
what a modern Kenyan tribe actually is, what traditional building styles are and how they can be renewed, reinvented, adapted to modern styles of building that incorporate ideas about recycling,
sustainability and harmony with ones surroundings. In short, it was a beautiful diverse intercultural pressure cooker where Kitengela Glass, in the persons of Maina and Kibe, added some spicy
much needed ingredients to.Bon appétit, Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2014.

The company known as Kitengela Glass Studios is owned and run by artist Nani Croze. The artist settlement at Kitengela Glass is situated on the edge of the National Park. The
landscape surrounding the settlement comprises lightly wooded savannah with some grazed and cultivated land.

Dr. Dino Martins,an adopted son of Nani Croze and a noted entomologist,has his headquarters here. In 2012,Dr.Ian Gordon,who recently retired as
Head of Enviromental Entomology at ICIPE,when visiting Dino at Kitengela Glass, noticed that the savannah there was inhabited by a thriving population of the
African Queen [Danaus chrysippus],a butterfly he had been studying for some forty years.He immediately informed his old friend and research associate,Dr.David
Smith[retired Head of Biology at Eton Collage,UK],who had devoted even more years to researching this iconic and beautiful butterfly. Ian,David,Dino,Professor Walther Traut
from the University Of Luebeck in Germany,and several kenyans,have formed a team to research D.Chrysippus at Kitengela glass,and applied to the Government Wildlife
Department for permission to proceed.

The focus of interest at Kitengela glass is a hybrid zone between two subspecies of D.Chrysippus,D.C.chrysippus and D.C.dorippus; the two subspecies are in
reality incipient species and,although they hybridize,the result is not harmonious. What has happened here,and elsewhere in the Nairobi region is that mechanisms are actively evolving which will
ensure that the two subspecies eventually become independent species.

The principal ingredient of the speciation process at Kitengela glass involves two remarkable and unique features. The first is that one subspecies [D.C.chrysippus]is infected
with a bacterium called Spiroplasma which kills male eggs,the implication being that females have only daughters:-as these daughters acquire the infection from their mothers,the
all-female line is perpetuated indefinitely. The second extra ordinary feature is that,because D.C.chrysippus females cannot mate with males of their own type,they are forced to
accept D.C.dorippus males as mates.

Because all their sons are killed,the hybrid daughters produce only daughters similar to themselves. We are also studying a chromosome mutation which has astonishing effect of preventing gene
flow from one subspecies to the other. Darwin would have loved this.

The book, African Queens and their kin:a Darwinian Odyssey by David Smith [publisher Brambleby Book,UK]will be available from July 2014. This book tells part of the Kitengela
glass story;It is, however,ongoing:otherwise we would not continue to do the research.Kitengela glass will play an important part in this unfolding story.

Great job done by kitengela glass research & training trust,Nani's team;Edwin,Katambo,Titus and the metal workers have been working on this project since 28/12/2013 to
5/3/2014. Now the dome is done and installed.